I can personally confirm architecture affects if not human behavior, then emotion. When I was a young lawyer working in NYC, my first job was at 195 Broadway, an exquisite building once considered a "skyscraper" in lower Manhattan with a lobby that looked a Greek temple. I recall vividly that each morning upon entering the building on my way up to the office thinking "I need to work very hard today live up to the excellence of this building". It made my work feel more inspired and, in a strange way, it supported me in that work. I felt differently working there than I did (before and after) in buildings with awful architecture and drab, dispiriting interiors.
Absolutely loved this programme, I feel the need to live in a very modern home filled with light, and to be able to be a of the apart of the outside. This is my dream and most we can’t afford so they learn to “settle” for what we can afford, which I feel is tragic. The planners are all building this home all over the UK that look so old and tiny windows, it’s they that need to get more creative but therein lies the problem it’s all about profit the “bottom line”.
I'm so pleased to find this series on a Alain de Botton/ school of philosophy binge watch over the last week. I had a vague memory of some of the topics discussed and some of the scenes from the 3 episodes but had forgotten it was De Botton. Thank you for uploading.
I personally think beauty is important, we are all attracted to beauty. But why must beauty be so huge. The Tiny House movement incorporates beauty with practicality and ecological awareness. Also, we need to design in a way that makes community easier. Front porches that look onto common spaces for instance. Lots of parks. Walkable sidewalks that are safe for people instead of only cars.
I don't agree with everything but I respect the ideas. I like the fact that this makes me think again. Being an architect, having my own taste and ideals, at the same time respecting what people want, it's not the easiest but it's true there are certain truths that we should aspire for. Aesthetics can be a matter of personal taste, but it should be along well set principles.
I've read another article where Alain suggests we're drawn to bleaker places because we feel that way on the inside; so I wonder if a person might have a sunnier (teddy bear softness) type of place to reflect a general optimism on their inside?? Rather than saying we have interior designs to reflect our inner deficiencies... could someone have joy within and decorate joy on the outside at the same time?
I think I somewhat understand what he is suggesting here... What is valuable about the times we live in? How do our homes reflect this? I see this in the classical music world. I find it interesting that a lot of patrons are more interested in maintaining music from 300 years ago than in sponsoring new works. Do not get me wrong, I adore Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, etc., but what about NOW? Who are we NOW? And understanding that, how we can build the same types of what we consider to be elegant, graceful structures that we associate with Renaissance Italy, Georgian England, Baroque France, etc.?
It's just more of our "Look at me, I am special and unique" culture. Ancient peoples adorned the caves they lived in. People will always want to ornament their spaces.
6:02 : Bedford square: beautiful sky, cars rather small in background 6:12 : New development: grey sky, ugly paint, garbage bin in foreground also compare the music after 5:40 and after 6:00 Description
Alain, the guy that fled London every weekend by a 4 hour drive. He loves His Country Cottage but that type of Country Cottage was rejected "as seen" in the small City Terrace House, especially because the Terrace house was built with its ground floor "off the ground" elevated by the floor joists being built into the partition walls this prevented rising damp
Would you please show us a picture of the gherkin from its entrance? .. Oh...you CAN"T.. The beautiful form is not visible for the common persone who walk the streets....only from a plane or a very long distance ... From the street views, the gherkin only crushes with his magnitude .. Concrete, glass and steel ...cold, cold and colder...He covers the sky and confuses the walker First lesson in arhitecture, learned from the Greeks: buildings are for ppl! Respect their scale!
The difference between the Bedfod Development and today's Developments is the INCLUSION OF LARGE SOCIAL EMPTY SPACES, parks, fountains and friendly commerce nearby.
Modernism in it's original form was affordable, for the masses for the purpose of approving their daily lives. It's current incarnation is a takeover by the wealthy who covet it for it's aestheticism. Sad really.
I think Alain de Botton might be a little distracted by the matter of style itself. He's not an architect, so it's a little understandable this distraction, because the arrangement of spaces doors and windows is often associated with certain styles and eras. But the homes of today, (though I haven't been in any in Britain, perhaps they're different there.) though they may look traditional in style from the outside and perhaps even in the details and furnishings inside. The free flow arrangement of rooms, spaces and sliding windows are often just as modern as those houses that are more obviously 'modern'. It's just a matter of taste. The lives formed within these homes must be pretty much the same as those wearing their stark modernism as a badge of honor.
It is admirable she does not care what others think and that is the way it should be because most people are inherently viciously wicked...And would snap at the chance to take your eyes out
The strange feel about pastiche housing is as much about the lifestyle of the people who live in it. Not an adult walking byz no children playing on the pavements, not a dog lying outside. E don't so much live in these dormitory fake villages as just sleep there and then rush back to l"real live" in offices, modern schools or Glossy electronic selling shops. Modern homes, no matter the style, are places we spend and even desire to spend time n. Life has changed and the majority of people want both, old fashioned lifestyle but constant entertainment, social life and work. It s a constant battle between desires and a facade that speaks of old style domesticity allow them to present a view to the world that a family is managing the fantasy successfully. However, I notice the presenter's own nostalgia for his childhood home. He thinks it is still the height of modernity. I love it, but it speaks to me of the 60s. It is not modern, it is very much of its time, the home of reasonably wealthy, European people in the 60s.
I heard that Alain was a multimillionaire and after having seen the house he grew up in in Switzerland I have no doubt. Still, I do like the niche he has made for himself. His wealth must have created an existentialist crisis which he solved through philosophy
i have seen that really wealthy people turn into: a) silly infinite shopping binges if they are immature b) silly bussiness endeavors if they are immature but inventive c) philosophy and arts if they are introverted
In the USA our residential architecture is what McDonalds is to cuisine. Not just fake but total insult to the palate. It's totally $$$ based. They front load the enjoyment and pleasure ---- meaning they make you glad WHEN you buy it but the gladness tends to fade further out from the purchase event. You're glad WHEN you bought but not so much glad THAT you bought.
Umberto Ecco's "Hyper-Reality" discusses similar ideas of "pastiche", but, in a more general sense. Theme parks like Anheuser-Busch's "The Old Country" near Williamsburg, VA, would be an example of such hyper-reality.
Alain, if you don't like that stuff, you should come see the new boxes going up in the US that are absolutely devoid of any sort of personality or anything. Also, for anyone interested in this sort of thing, I highly recommend Bill Bryson's book "at Home."
Frank Martin what are you talking about? England has ugly boxes being built the U.S. Has nice houses with good shapes, colors and features like stone and brick facades and 3 car garages while British houses are just ugly boxes
this argument is based on a fallacy that architecture follows timelines. westminster palace is a gothic revival pastiche that has ''forgot'' that it is a victorian building. bristol has a georgian revival town hall started in the 1930s that has ''forgot'' that it's not the 1700s but the 1930s. the british museum is a neo-classical pastiche that has again, forgot it's victorian, chester, too, is full of tudor revival pastiche. architecture has always been full of revivals, it's only since 1945 that we have not had revivals....
There are countless incredibly well trained architects graduating each year that would die to have the possibility to work on residential projects. So it is hard to understand why there is such awful architecture, not only in Britain but all over the world. Why aren't architects and their valued much?
I believe Worringer's two-dollars psychology according to which people decorate their homes to compensate for something they feel they are lacking in their life is hardly supported by any sound research. Like he did in his series about philosophers and happiness, Alain de Botton uncritically picks someone's assumption and decides to offer it to us as the obvious truth.
Our era has NO Style, that's why we can't build in our contemporary style. Style requires architechts to have Values, Knowledge, Appreciiation and Resspect for Regional Histories, and finally an Empathy for its inhabitants. Ecclecticism has been going on for a long time in Architecture, actually, ever since the Ancient Greeks wanted to emulate the Temples of Thebes. It's not a question of style, it's a question of purpose, (usefullness) and quality.
Why do we have to design buildings for "our era"? That would mean we must design by the post-modern aesthetic which is consciously anti-beauty. I think a lot of people have an intuitive aversion to the cold, hard institutional lines of the aesthetic of "our era".
You ask why people are looking to the past? Obviously people are not happy!!! They are looking for something else..... Everyone seems to be trained to focus on what is wrong (even if it is a forced illusion.) Quit watching tv and quit being brainwashed... Find happiness in natural settings.
Honestly - does he know anything about Marie Antoinette and the time she lived in? Does classical inspired architecture be the same as japanese "Disneyland"?
Hello Eva. Well, I do see a connection there. They are both artificial sets of buildings rather than authentic settlements. But of course since Marie Antoinette's project is over 200 years old it looks very fascinating and authentic to us. If international communications and transports were to collapse maybe in 200 years someone would consider the Japanese Disneyland a masterpiece of sorts.
Not the buildnings, it is that he suggests that Marie would try to change the way the french court and "government" worked. She came from upper class (Habsburg), was forced to marry Loui when she was 15. She knew sh*t about pesant life. The king was a god, and boring. She tried to escape him. And women were of cource considered far less than men.
Modern architecture, at least to me, is often cold and uninviting. Just not a place I am comfortable to be in. Many modern homes, with their large windows and squared edges remind me of an office building. When I get off work, I don't want to be in an office. I want a place that is cozy, easy on the eyes and interesting. An office is just none of those.
my main criticism of this is that his view is very class-based. architecture, probably by sheer necessity (those with money can buy the land, labor and materials involved) is always invested with the class interests of the overlords of the rest of humanity. the buildings that he goes to as a symbol of what 'we' should idealize are what the top classes choose to emphasize, and many of the buildings that he picks out (and which are heavily featured in architectural magazines) are those which are built by the upper classes for their own pleasure. in this way, I think he misses the point entirely (and I do not miss his--much of what gets built as common architecture IS sad, shoddy and depressing and harkening back to some kind of imagined past where people can be mistakenly viewed as more authentic and psychologically secure) that the upper classes are using their money to build their own technological fantasy world to escape from the common man. who but someone who can afford to buy two home lots can have the privacy that an glass roof and glass walls afford? who wants to live in something that looks very much like the cold, impersonal glass office building that they work in all day long? many do, but many of those are aspirationally wealthy themselves, noveau riche, etc.. the very buildings he takes us into are palaces by comparison that many of us will never get the chance to enter, and then to highlight this contrast, he shows the lower class subdivisions, who really do want comfort. and yet why does he never ask why they NEED comfort from the 'modern' world? because that world has devalued them and left them behind to rot in pseudo tudorbethan or neo-Georgian tenements. they are disguised, and sold for profit, but they are still tenements compared to the 'ideal' architecture that he thinks we should all aspire to. I agree that if something is built, it should be built with the idea that it will stand the test of time and still be as attractive to individuals in the future as in the past. and much of those modern skyscrapers are NOT attractive to people in the present, much less the past and hopefully not the future. yes, the Gherkin is a signature kind of architecture, but I notice that it is almost always featured from OUTside. why? possibly because the psychological impact of being INSIDE the darn thing is horrifying (just guessing; never been there). the homes he features are pleasant, but they are not for everyone and until they ARE for everyone, they are not the homes that should be built. notice how the couple even bought the lot to keep out "those with bad taste" (paraphrase). this is exactly how the upper class views us commoners, and our preferred architecture--sentimental, clinging on to the past, etc. 'read' it and weep!
Anon y'mouse I think what you call, use of wealth to escape the common man, is a based around status and can be seen in varying levels throughout all classes. If a poor could afford to change their home and cared to do so they would. My poor neighbor has built a fence and covered is outdoor living areas and windows. He has a pickup truck with all kinds of artist accents added to it. Most people wish to be somewhat unique, and not all "commoners" wish for designs of the past. And you sound like such a victim. While the wealth inequality is insane, it is not outside the average persons ability to change their home for the better.
I don't think you actually watch the 3 episodes. AB is actually making a point against Mac Mansion in Britain, Episode 1 is about understanding space and typology through high architecture, Episode 2 and 3 are about Mac mansion and the Dutch housing, and social housing.
Newer houses in the US are "cookie cutter", devoid of any character. It makes me sick that developers here cut down every single tree on the lots. The lots are hideous. Many wealthy people here seem to prefer Tudor homes, built in the 1920s. They have a character that the new homes just don't have, as well as having been built out of better quality materials and workmanship. The pastiche he spoke of would be greatly welcomed here. I love those quaint English village styles, which you just don't find here.
Susan Simpson people like the look of "cookie cutter" houses because they are typically nice in the U.S. And we'll layer out. I do agree with you on the trees though I hate when developers chop down all the trees on a lot. Also you do know people hated the houses being built in the 1920s too right anytime new housing is built there are the critics who dislike it
Some may take inspiration from the ideals of democracy, science, and business but for many of us it feels completely outside of our selves. It makes us feel lonely and small. Perhaps the "old ideals" of discipline and courage speak to us more directly. They exist within every common man, they call upon us to be our very best regardless of our place in the world. The glass sphere in Berlin, the public looking over their lawmakers, is a lie. To encompass the spirit of a lion or an angel is by comparison much less of a fantasy.
Ancient architecture was about presenting the possibilities in allegories of women and man's spiritual growth. What Allen is suggesting is to ignore who we are as spiritual beings and simply build buildings that reflect the rapid capitalistic culture that's the basis of our economy. Who would want to do that with their house? Who has such little dreams for their life?
So His Idea of "The Perfect Home" is the Childhood Home of His Past.... How Obvious and Cliche... So many of us feel the same about our own Nostalgia.... His Zurich Swiss Home is Cold, Stark and in my opinion quite Ugly and Unsettling.... To Each His Own Taste, Right ?
oh thats a relief next week he is going to tell us "what is beautiful and why" ...can't wait to see that. on a side note spend an extra five pounds on a new sound track will u ..not that the banging 3 notes are not as insightful as your statements.
oh i meant the guy in the video not you ..sorry about that. just about to watch 2nd vid ...thanks for upload ..i may not agree with presenter but its interesting and definitely amusing. :)
The problem what 🏠 today is it doesn't create connection in the community end up being lonely camp's wife and kids planning so they serve people not car's street and make a plan to create a village with service to ease car use shopping school and a eye to create near by food production power from solar wind the future will look very much like the past not industrial but More in the vane of the comen it takes a village to have a good life.
The houses which the host thought were representative of what we should be building, such as his boyhood home, looked hideously ugly and used a lot of concrete which is a very "eco unfriendly" option. Is it not possible that they are over thinking this and really the houses that people like are a matter of personal taste and aesthetics and has nothing to do with Nietzche or sociology or statements of our culture?
I don't loathe modern architecture because it's modern, or uses modern materials... it's just plain ugly and revolting. I think all things Alain lists up being incorporated into "good" modern architecture (open layouts, large windows, reflecting ideals etc) can be achieved by any style and does not by any means justify the lack of beauty in modern architecture.
That was a beautiful house he once lived in. There are a lot of beautiful modern homes in Phoenix, and every year there is a tour. I love the simplicity.
Àleifr Klingfjordr not all modern architecture is ugly but if it's built in a suburban area it typically is also most new houses are actually really nice on the inside and outside at least in America I'm not sure about England though
new houses in the US are cookie cutter; I've seen entire neighborhoods where each home is identical, like boxes, maybe painted different colors, although only about 3 colors to choose from: beige, white, pale yellow. They stick a few small shrubs around the front, cut down all the trees, totally de-nude the lots. Many of the homes are 20-30 feet apart....no privacy. The older neighborhoods are the only ones with any character left, which actually have large shade trees and sidewalks.
![The Perfect Home - Alain de Botton [episode two]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XaL8S7vRA2s/mqdefault.jpg)
![The Perfect Home - Alain de Botton [episode three]](/img/1.gif)
I can personally confirm architecture affects if not human behavior, then emotion. When I was a young lawyer working in NYC, my first job was at 195 Broadway, an exquisite building once considered a "skyscraper" in lower Manhattan with a lobby that looked a Greek temple. I recall vividly that each morning upon entering the building on my way up to the office thinking "I need to work very hard today live up to the excellence of this building". It made my work feel more inspired and, in a strange way, it supported me in that work. I felt differently working there than I did (before and after) in buildings with awful architecture and drab, dispiriting interiors.
You poke at our sensibilities...challenge our predispositions...propel us to a higher engagement....marvelous....
Absolutely loved this programme, I feel the need to live in a very modern home filled with light, and to be able to be a of the apart
of the outside. This is my dream and most we can’t afford so they learn to “settle” for what we can afford, which I feel is tragic. The
planners are all building this home all over the UK that look so old and tiny windows, it’s they that need to get more creative but therein lies
the problem it’s all about profit the “bottom line”.
I'm so pleased to find this series on a Alain de Botton/ school of philosophy binge watch over the last week.
I had a vague memory of some of the topics discussed and some of the scenes from the 3 episodes but had forgotten it was De Botton.
Thank you for uploading.
I personally think beauty is important, we are all attracted to beauty. But why must beauty be so huge. The Tiny House movement incorporates beauty with practicality and ecological awareness. Also, we need to design in a way that makes community easier. Front porches that look onto common spaces for instance. Lots of parks. Walkable sidewalks that are safe for people instead of only cars.
Maria Agosto because double story 3 car garaged beauty is a lot prettier than 300sqft parked in a backyard beauty
I adore the Tiny House Movement! Beauty is so much more than size.
Alain de Botton is simply wonderful.
love this guys philosophy
I love his childhood home. That’s actually my ideal home with the atrium courtyard in the center.
The house Alain grew up in looks extremely expensive, with the wide expanses and huge windows. Most family homes don't look anything like that.
I don't agree with everything but I respect the ideas. I like the fact that this makes me think again. Being an architect, having my own taste and ideals, at the same time respecting what people want, it's not the easiest but it's true there are certain truths that we should aspire for. Aesthetics can be a matter of personal taste, but it should be along well set principles.
I've read another article where Alain suggests we're drawn to bleaker places because we feel that way on the inside; so I wonder if a person might have a sunnier (teddy bear softness) type of place to reflect a general optimism on their inside?? Rather than saying we have interior designs to reflect our inner deficiencies... could someone have joy within and decorate joy on the outside at the same time?
I think I somewhat understand what he is suggesting here...
What is valuable about the times we live in? How do our homes reflect this?
I see this in the classical music world. I find it interesting that a lot of patrons are more interested in maintaining music from 300 years ago than in sponsoring new works. Do not get me wrong, I adore Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, etc., but what about NOW? Who are we NOW? And understanding that, how we can build the same types of what we consider to be elegant, graceful structures that we associate with Renaissance Italy, Georgian England, Baroque France, etc.?
I wish I didn't, but I do. I LOVE you Alain!
Thanks! I love this video.
It's just more of our "Look at me, I am special and unique" culture. Ancient peoples adorned the caves they lived in. People will always want to ornament their spaces.
6:02 : Bedford square: beautiful sky, cars rather small in background
6:12 : New development: grey sky, ugly paint, garbage bin in foreground
also compare the music after 5:40 and after 6:00
Description
I love Alain De Botton but I must admit I am a very sentimental person ...
Thanks for the interesting upload . I work as a nanny/housekeeper so I've known for some time that "home sweet home" in America has many definitions .
What missed opportunities to create wonderful spaces. It makes me terribly depressed, being an architect.
Alain, the guy that fled London every weekend by a 4 hour drive. He loves His Country Cottage but that type of Country Cottage was rejected "as seen" in the small City Terrace House, especially because the Terrace house was built with its ground floor "off the ground" elevated by the floor joists being built into the partition walls this prevented rising damp
Beautiful old, Georgian houses
Would you please show us a picture of the gherkin from its entrance?
.. Oh...you CAN"T.. The beautiful form is not visible for the common persone who walk the streets....only from a plane or a very long distance ...
From the street views, the gherkin only crushes with his magnitude .. Concrete, glass and steel ...cold, cold and colder...He covers the sky and confuses the walker
First lesson in arhitecture, learned from the Greeks: buildings are for ppl! Respect their scale!
The difference between the Bedfod Development and today's Developments is the INCLUSION OF LARGE SOCIAL EMPTY SPACES, parks, fountains and friendly commerce nearby.
I can't believe how rich these de boton videos are.
100% correct we should be able to design our house and build it without permits. We are being strangled and their creativity is cut off.
This guy is clearly a fan of modernist style architecture.
Modernism in it's original form was affordable, for the masses for the purpose of approving their daily lives. It's current incarnation is a takeover by the wealthy who covet it for it's aestheticism. Sad really.
Lucky Alain. He grew up in an ideal house
I think Alain de Botton might be a little distracted by the matter of style itself. He's not an architect, so it's a little understandable this distraction, because the arrangement of spaces doors and windows is often associated with certain styles and eras. But the homes of today, (though I haven't been in any in Britain, perhaps they're different there.) though they may look traditional in style from the outside and perhaps even in the details and furnishings inside. The free flow arrangement of rooms, spaces and sliding windows are often just as modern as those houses that are more obviously 'modern'. It's just a matter of taste. The lives formed within these homes must be pretty much the same as those wearing their stark modernism as a badge of honor.
Very interesting...
great nietzsche quote at 18:18
It is admirable she does not care what others think and that is the way it should be because most people are inherently viciously wicked...And would snap at the chance to take your eyes out
Modern residential buildings looks like office buildings, that's why people want to avoid them.
Very interesting program
Magnificent
This is a moot point when one understands the living conditions of most of the people of the world.
If you really want to understand architecture- read Christopher Alexander. Botton’s ideas are very simplistic
The strange feel about pastiche housing is as much about the lifestyle of the people who live in it. Not an adult walking byz no children playing on the pavements, not a dog lying outside. E don't so much live in these dormitory fake villages as just sleep there and then rush back to l"real live" in offices, modern schools or Glossy electronic selling shops. Modern homes, no matter the style, are places we spend and even desire to spend time n. Life has changed and the majority of people want both, old fashioned lifestyle but constant entertainment, social life and work. It s a constant battle between desires and a facade that speaks of old style domesticity allow them to present a view to the world that a family is managing the fantasy successfully.
However, I notice the presenter's own nostalgia for his childhood home. He thinks it is still the height of modernity. I love it, but it speaks to me of the 60s. It is not modern, it is very much of its time, the home of reasonably wealthy, European people in the 60s.
Quality of life goes way down, in proportion to how close we are jammed in between neighbours!!!
The 19th Century small working class Terrace House was a rejection of past-type houses
I heard that Alain was a multimillionaire and after having seen the house he grew up in in Switzerland I have no doubt. Still, I do like the niche he has made for himself. His wealth must have created an existentialist crisis which he solved through philosophy
i have seen that really wealthy people turn into: a) silly infinite shopping binges if they are immature b) silly bussiness endeavors if they are immature but inventive c) philosophy and arts if they are introverted
A property developer called Chris Crook! Aptly named?
In the USA our residential architecture is what McDonalds is to cuisine. Not just fake but total insult to the palate. It's totally $$$ based. They front load the enjoyment and pleasure ---- meaning they make you glad WHEN you buy it but the gladness tends to fade further out from the purchase event. You're glad WHEN you bought but not so much glad THAT you bought.
Augur Cybernaut architecture in the U.S. Is nice like all of our suburban houses are Gorgeous unlike houses in England
Umberto Ecco's "Hyper-Reality" discusses similar ideas of "pastiche", but, in a more general sense. Theme parks like Anheuser-Busch's "The Old Country" near Williamsburg, VA, would be an example of such hyper-reality.
wonderful
Alain, if you don't like that stuff, you should come see the new boxes going up in the US that are absolutely devoid of any sort of personality or anything. Also, for anyone interested in this sort of thing, I highly recommend Bill Bryson's book "at Home."
Frank Martin what are you talking about? England has ugly boxes being built the U.S. Has nice houses with good shapes, colors and features like stone and brick facades and 3 car garages while British houses are just ugly boxes
this argument is based on a fallacy that architecture follows timelines. westminster palace is a gothic revival pastiche that has ''forgot'' that it is a victorian building. bristol has a georgian revival town hall started in the 1930s that has ''forgot'' that it's not the 1700s but the 1930s. the british museum is a neo-classical pastiche that has again, forgot it's victorian, chester, too, is full of tudor revival pastiche. architecture has always been full of revivals, it's only since 1945 that we have not had revivals....
There are countless incredibly well trained architects graduating each year that would die to have the possibility to work on residential projects. So it is hard to understand why there is such awful architecture, not only in Britain but all over the world. Why aren't architects and their valued much?
It does seem like a failure that most horror games takes place in hospitals.
I believe Worringer's two-dollars psychology according to which people decorate their homes to compensate for something they feel they are lacking in their life is hardly supported by any sound research. Like he did in his series about philosophers and happiness, Alain de Botton uncritically picks someone's assumption and decides to offer it to us as the obvious truth.
He should visit my minecraft mansion
Our era has NO Style, that's why we can't build in our contemporary style. Style requires architechts to have Values, Knowledge, Appreciiation and Resspect for Regional Histories, and finally an Empathy for its inhabitants. Ecclecticism has been going on for a long time in Architecture, actually, ever since the Ancient Greeks wanted to emulate the Temples of Thebes. It's not a question of
style, it's a question of purpose, (usefullness) and quality.
I find Alain distractingly handsome
Why do we have to design buildings for "our era"? That would mean we must design by the post-modern aesthetic which is consciously anti-beauty. I think a lot of people have an intuitive aversion to the cold, hard institutional lines of the aesthetic of "our era".
They should fix up the old houses,and old neighborhoods 🤦♀️ ...
18:05
You ask why people are looking to the past?
Obviously people are not happy!!! They are looking for something else.....
Everyone seems to be trained to focus on what is wrong (even if it is a forced illusion.)
Quit watching tv and quit being brainwashed... Find happiness in natural settings.
Honestly - does he know anything about Marie Antoinette and the time she lived in? Does classical inspired architecture be the same as japanese "Disneyland"?
Hello Eva. Well, I do see a connection there. They are both artificial sets of buildings rather than authentic settlements. But of course since Marie Antoinette's project is over 200 years old it looks very fascinating and authentic to us. If international communications and transports were to collapse maybe in 200 years someone would consider the Japanese Disneyland a masterpiece of sorts.
Not the buildnings, it is that he suggests that Marie would try to change the way the french court and "government" worked. She came from upper class (Habsburg), was forced to marry Loui when she was 15. She knew sh*t about pesant life. The king was a god, and boring. She tried to escape him.
And women were of cource considered far less than men.
Modern architecture, at least to me, is often cold and uninviting. Just not a place I am comfortable to be in. Many modern homes, with their large windows and squared edges remind me of an office building. When I get off work, I don't want to be in an office. I want a place that is cozy, easy on the eyes and interesting. An office is just none of those.
After 30 years as an urban planner....All I can say is Aaaahhhhhhhhhhh.
my main criticism of this is that his view is very class-based. architecture, probably by sheer necessity (those with money can buy the land, labor and materials involved) is always invested with the class interests of the overlords of the rest of humanity. the buildings that he goes to as a symbol of what 'we' should idealize are what the top classes choose to emphasize, and many of the buildings that he picks out (and which are heavily featured in architectural magazines) are those which are built by the upper classes for their own pleasure. in this way, I think he misses the point entirely (and I do not miss his--much of what gets built as common architecture IS sad, shoddy and depressing and harkening back to some kind of imagined past where people can be mistakenly viewed as more authentic and psychologically secure) that the upper classes are using their money to build their own technological fantasy world to escape from the common man. who but someone who can afford to buy two home lots can have the privacy that an glass roof and glass walls afford? who wants to live in something that looks very much like the cold, impersonal glass office building that they work in all day long? many do, but many of those are aspirationally wealthy themselves, noveau riche, etc.. the very buildings he takes us into are palaces by comparison that many of us will never get the chance to enter, and then to highlight this contrast, he shows the lower class subdivisions, who really do want comfort. and yet why does he never ask why they NEED comfort from the 'modern' world? because that world has devalued them and left them behind to rot in pseudo tudorbethan or neo-Georgian tenements. they are disguised, and sold for profit, but they are still tenements compared to the 'ideal' architecture that he thinks we should all aspire to. I agree that if something is built, it should be built with the idea that it will stand the test of time and still be as attractive to individuals in the future as in the past. and much of those modern skyscrapers are NOT attractive to people in the present, much less the past and hopefully not the future. yes, the Gherkin is a signature kind of architecture, but I notice that it is almost always featured from OUTside. why? possibly because the psychological impact of being INSIDE the darn thing is horrifying (just guessing; never been there). the homes he features are pleasant, but they are not for everyone and until they ARE for everyone, they are not the homes that should be built. notice how the couple even bought the lot to keep out "those with bad taste" (paraphrase). this is exactly how the upper class views us commoners, and our preferred architecture--sentimental, clinging on to the past, etc. 'read' it and weep!
Thank you . I will not watch.
Anon y'mouse I think what you call, use of wealth to escape the common man, is a based around status and can be seen in varying levels throughout all classes. If a poor could afford to change their home and cared to do so they would. My poor neighbor has built a fence and covered is outdoor living areas and windows. He has a pickup truck with all kinds of artist accents added to it. Most people wish to be somewhat unique, and not all "commoners" wish for designs of the past. And you sound like such a victim. While the wealth inequality is insane, it is not outside the average persons ability to change their home for the better.
Meirion Owen don't be a moron. Draw your own opinion, because this person has.
I don't think you actually watch the 3 episodes. AB is actually making a point against Mac Mansion in Britain, Episode 1 is about understanding space and typology through high architecture, Episode 2 and 3 are about Mac mansion and the Dutch housing, and social housing.
wow, could this be any pertinent to the current atomised society we are living in?
Newer houses in the US are "cookie cutter", devoid of any character. It makes me sick that developers here cut down every single tree on the lots. The lots are hideous. Many wealthy people here seem to prefer Tudor homes, built in the 1920s. They have a character that the new homes just don't have, as well as having been built out of better quality materials and workmanship. The pastiche he spoke of would be greatly welcomed here. I love those quaint English village styles, which you just don't find here.
Susan Simpson people like the look of "cookie cutter" houses because they are typically nice in the U.S. And we'll layer out. I do agree with you on the trees though I hate when developers chop down all the trees on a lot. Also you do know people hated the houses being built in the 1920s too right anytime new housing is built there are the critics who dislike it
Very unfortunate, generic soundtrack which totally contradicts the premise.
Some may take inspiration from the ideals of democracy, science, and business but for many of us it feels completely outside of our selves. It makes us feel lonely and small. Perhaps the "old ideals" of discipline and courage speak to us more directly. They exist within every common man, they call upon us to be our very best regardless of our place in the world. The glass sphere in Berlin, the public looking over their lawmakers, is a lie. To encompass the spirit of a lion or an angel is by comparison much less of a fantasy.
Ancient architecture was about presenting the possibilities in allegories of women and man's spiritual growth. What Allen is suggesting is to ignore who we are as spiritual beings and simply build buildings that reflect the rapid capitalistic culture that's the basis of our economy. Who would want to do that with their house? Who has such little dreams for their life?
The perfect home is, to me, from the past. Not a fan of modernism. Pastiche is me heh.
So His Idea of "The Perfect Home" is the Childhood Home of His Past.... How Obvious and Cliche... So many of us feel the same about our own Nostalgia.... His Zurich Swiss Home is Cold, Stark and in my opinion quite Ugly and Unsettling.... To Each His Own Taste, Right ?
oh thats a relief next week he is going to tell us "what is beautiful and why" ...can't wait to see that.
on a side note spend an extra five pounds on a new sound track will u ..not that the banging 3 notes are not as insightful as your statements.
meow...
oh i meant the guy in the video not you ..sorry about that. just about to watch 2nd vid ...thanks for upload ..i may not agree with presenter but its interesting and definitely amusing. :)
+Redina Bloogs yes it sounds like chopins funeral march
We had a philosophy discussion and this young posh guy went on referring to a Alain de Bottom, ... and aesthetics 🤔🐮😃
The problem what 🏠 today is it doesn't create connection in the community end up being lonely camp's wife and kids planning so they serve people not car's street and make a plan to create a village with service to ease car use shopping school and a eye to create near by food production power from solar wind the future will look very much like the past not industrial but More in the vane of the comen it takes a village to have a good life.
The houses which the host thought were representative of what we should be building, such as his boyhood home, looked hideously ugly and used a lot of concrete which is a very "eco unfriendly" option. Is it not possible that they are over thinking this and really the houses that people like are a matter of personal taste and aesthetics and has nothing to do with Nietzche or sociology or statements of our culture?
Many modern designs seem to lack a sense of soul.
I don't loathe modern architecture because it's modern, or uses modern materials... it's just plain ugly and revolting. I think all things Alain lists up being incorporated into "good" modern architecture (open layouts, large windows, reflecting ideals etc) can be achieved by any style and does not by any means justify the lack of beauty in modern architecture.
+Àleifr Klingfjordr I agree. I also sense Alain is nostalgic for modernism.
That was a beautiful house he once lived in. There are a lot of beautiful modern homes in Phoenix, and every year there is a tour. I love the simplicity.
Àleifr Klingfjordr not all modern architecture is ugly but if it's built in a suburban area it typically is also most new houses are actually really nice on the inside and outside at least in America I'm not sure about England though
Bourgeois beyond belief !
I guess he decided to address iconic examples of domiciles first then their alternatives.
I AM rustic....
VASTU. Yo
huge Windows.. open plan spaces… contact with nature…. is that °modernism° or justa another nostalgic fashion? … going back to living in the caves....
My god, you want to see hideous, come look at new houses in US.
new houses in the US are cookie cutter; I've seen entire neighborhoods where each home is identical, like boxes, maybe painted different colors, although only about 3 colors to choose from: beige, white, pale yellow. They stick a few small shrubs around the front, cut down all the trees, totally de-nude the lots. Many of the homes are 20-30 feet apart....no privacy. The older neighborhoods are the only ones with any character left, which actually have large shade trees and sidewalks.
Where do live? 1950's Levittown??? They haven't built developments like that in decades LOL
woffle ....